Top Commitment

The mission and the Bridgestone Essence serve as a solid base for the Group, even in the midst of a rapidly changing business environment. To achieve our mission, I believe it is vital for Bridgestone to grow while adapting to change and seeking to enhance the sustainability of society and the Company. We will harness the collective power of our teammates worldwide as we strive to get back to No. 1 in the rubber and tire industry by our 100th anniversary in 2031.

In 2026, we enter the final year of the Mid Term Business Plan (2024–2026). To date, our focus has been on business restructuring and rebuilding and other steps to reinforce our defense strategy in an increasingly uncertain business environment. In 2025, amid the impact of U.S. tariffs and other significant environmental changes, we designated the year as “emergency and crisis management” and focused on reinforcing business quality, including cost reduction. Through these initiatives, we have made headway in restructuring and rebuilding. While successfully sustaining the solid business foundation we have built, we will shift toward growth with quality, aiming to regain the No. 1 in the industry.

Getting back to No. 1 will require us to place even greater stress on teamwork. Under the new management structure, we believe that better outcomes will be achieved as our seven executive officers and other global leaders—each bringing distinct strengths—engage in close, in-depth discussion and lead decision-making based on the principle of Genbutsu-Genba (on-site). On-site as well, we will prioritize teamwork-led initiatives that transcend the various regional and value-chain functions. Placing emphasis on interaction between management and on-site team members,I envision Bridgestone making the journey back to No. 1 as one global team.

The foundation of Bridgestone’s growth lies in its origins as a rubber and tire manufacturer with the expertise to develop attractive and competitive products. We will thoroughly strengthen our technological foundation and enhance product competitiveness through the continuous launch of new products, while also reinforcing our manufacturing competitiveness. To this end, the new management structure has separate executive officers focusing on materials, product development, and manufacturing. We will also actively leverage our involvement in motorsports to ensure that we continue to refine Bridgestone’s world-class technology.

●Attractive and competitive products (24MBP new products – Consumer tire examples)

Leveraging the optimal combination of our global production footprint and sales network—our key strengths—is an integral part of honing our competitiveness. In addition to the regional and product axes, we are enhancing profitability and contributing to sustainability by linking them to our unique Sustainability Business Model across the value chain—from production and sales to customer use, renewal (recycle) to raw materials.

Black, round tires and other rubber products quietly support vehicles as unsung heroes, playing a vital but often unnoticed role. Precisely because of this, we believe it is essential to strengthen our brand. We will steadily expand opportunities for more stakeholders to engage with Bridgestone, including through our motorsports activities.

We will pursue these various initiatives on-site with the entire Bridgestone team worldwide, while maintaining active dialogue with stakeholders, to continue growing while creating opportunities for co-creation. Moreover, as we grow, we will emphasize building harmonious relations with our employees, customers, business partners, society, and other stakeholders. My hope is that this Integrated Report, by showcasing the initiatives of the Bridgestone Group, will lead us to create new value together.

Besides regional operations in Japan and Asia, Pacific, India, and China (APIC), EAST encompasses the diversified products business and the Global Mining, Industrial, Construction, Aviation (G-MICA) solutions business for global markets, both managed by the Global Headquarters in Japan. It also carries out the Global Headquarters functions of public relations, brand strategy, and human resources.

EAST leverages its collective strengths across its business units and specialized domains, including Global Headquarters functions, to fulfill our mission of “Serving Society with Superior Quality,” playing a key role in supporting social infrastructure. It enhances Bridgestone’s competitiveness, underpins value creation and drives growth.

Our regional operations span the mature market of Japan and the growth markets of APIC. With a long history in both of these home markets, we are focusing on realizing sustainable growth while continuing to enhance competitiveness through flexible adaptation to changes in the business environment. I see the G-MICA Solutions Business as a strategic field standing at the vanguard of Bridgestone’s unique business model, which seeks to maximize value not only at the produce and sell phase for products but also their use. We are also targeting steady growth from this area to build it into a further driver of profitability. In addition, the diversified products business is a key area supporting industry and people’s lifestyles, where we aim to build value in ways that continue to contribute to society.

All the EAST businesses share a common philosophy of earning the trust of society and customers by accurately grasping customer needs on-site and creating value by offering attractive and competitive products and solutions. Moreover, I believe that amplifying this value based on trust will support our drive toward growth with quality.

To extend this trust more broadly across society and link it to future value creation, we proactively engage in communication with society and our customers through PR and brand activities. Furthermore, our Global Headquarters’ HR function underpins the attraction and development of talent who build trust and translate it into value creation. By consolidating all these elements under EAST, we aim to be a team that contributes to the global growth of Bridgestone.

During my assignment in Europe, I worked on the front lines as a sales manager for car manufacturers, delivering value directly to customers. I later took on roles in corporate planning, PR, and brand strategy at the global headquarters. As part of the management team, I have also served as President of our Thai subsidiary and overseen G-MICA Solutions. These experiences across both regional operations and Global Headquarters functions have taught me the importance of building trust and creating and communicating value. Through these experiences, I have come to believe that, guided by an on-site approach (Genba) mindset, each Bridgestone teammate can take pride in their work and continue to grow. By steadily building on daily improvements and efforts toward realizing our mission of “Serving Society with Superior Quality,” we can achieve growth with quality—both for Bridgestone as a company and for each individual.

Continually honing value created on-site and keeping challenging ourselves to create sustainable value creation as we approach Bridgestone’s 100th anniversary in 2031, EAST will be a driving force behind our efforts to get back to the world’s No. 1.

The WEST region stands at a decisive moment in its evolution. Encompassing North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa, the WEST represents a unique portfolio that combines mature markets with stable growth and emerging markets with long-term growth potential. By leveraging this diversity through strong teamwork across the region, we strive to balance resilience and growth across different economic cycles and market conditions.

Our brands are another key differentiator for the WEST. In particular, we operate two power brands: Bridgestone, which embodies our corporate heritage and global leadership, and Firestone, a brand deeply rooted in American history and trusted by generations of customers, especially in the Americas market. Together, these brands enable us to serve a broad range of customer experiences while strengthening our presence across channels and segments.

Building on this diversity and the strong legacies, the WEST is uniquely positioned to play a leading role in Bridgestone’s growth. Accounting for more than half of the Company’s global revenue, the WEST carries a significant responsibility and opportunity to drive growth not only in scale, but also in quality.

With this backdrop and looking ahead to Bridgestone’s 100th anniversary in 2031, 2026 serves as a pivotal bridge year, in which we move decisively toward sustainable, longterm value creation and our ambition to be back to the world’s No. 1.

Our ambition is grounded in the belief that sustainable growth can only be achieved through strong business quality, disciplined execution, and an unwavering commitment to our people. As uncertainty and complexity in the business environment continue to intensify across the WEST and the world, recent experience has reinforced the importance of operating with a lean mindset, ensuring stability across the value chain, and remaining resilient amid volatility. These fundamentals guide how we set priorities, allocate resources, and execute consistently across regions with different characteristics.

Lastly, our actions are guided by the Bridgestone Essence. “Safety First, Always” stands at the foundation of everything we do, followed by Genbutsu-Genba and Jukuryo-Danko, which ensure that we observe reality firsthand, think deeply, and act decisively. This culture has been steadily strengthened throughout the 24MBP period and continues to reinforce safety and quality across our operations. In parallel, we are advancing a cultural transformation in which the customer becomes our compass. By placing the customer at the center of everything we do, we will strengthen Bridgestone as a trusted and preferred partner—through simpler processes, faster responses, and more reliable execution—while maximizing the strengths of mature markets and accelerating value creation in emerging markets to achieve balanced growth and sustainable competitive advantage across the WEST.

The mission of a CIO is to foster innovation to continuously support the creation of attractive and competitive nextgeneration product lines. This can be achieved by developing leading-edge technologies, primarily in materials, as part of the Global Technology Platform (GTP). My focus is on strengthening our technological foundation—including our ability to integrate technology into our businesses—to connect the seeds arising out of R&D to product design, production, quality, and service, ensuring that they deliver social value and customer value. We are also exploring opportunities for new business development centered on materials technology, broadening the options for growth as Bridgestone heads toward its 100th anniversary in 2031 and beyond.

In recent years, the tire and mobility industry has continued to experience unprecedented change. In this environment, it is essential for Bridgestone, with R&D and manufacturing at its core, to continuously refine its technological foundation built on its inherent strengths in order to respond swiftly to change and continue creating value while maintaining a competitive advantage. My focus as CIO is on generating innovation on-site (Genbutsu-Genba), while integrating expertise from our technology development sites in Japan, the U.S., Europe, and Asia. I will also focus on phasing in the use of AI and other digital technologies to drive faster, more advanced technology development.

Since our founding, our materials technologies—centered on rubber and polymers—have been a core source of our competitive advantage. Through our materials technologies, which pursue these mechanisms, we have achieved a highlevel balance among conflicting performance attributes such as rolling resistance, wear resistance, and wet performance. Going forward, we will integrate sustainability and further advance our capabilities in material design, analysis and evaluation to drive differentiation and deliver attractive, competitive next-generation products.

At the same time, industry-wide challenges such as TRWP and 6PPD represent both important business risks and opportunities for new technology development. We will fulfill our responsibility as an industry leader to address these challenges while accumulating data and knowledge, based on a grounded scientific and technological approach. Adopting this perspective is essential not only in terms of seriously addressing social demands but also in terms of driving the development of next-generation products.

We are also looking to capitalize on our strengths in materials to expand the scope of our business. In tire recycling, in addition to developing the technologies needed for social implementation, we aim to develop systems that enable continuous value circulation as well as a business model that generates profits. We are also working to develop the next-generation products to support the future of mobility, including AirFree™ and lunar rover tires. Beyond these initiatives, I seek to create further business opportunities by continuing to embrace an array of challenges grounded in new technologies.

Co-creation and talent are a crucial part of achieving these goals. New technology development and business exploration cannot be realized by our company alone. We will deepen co-creation with partners across industry, government, academia, and the private sector, and enhance both the speed and quality of innovation by integrating diverse knowledge. At the same time, we are cultivating talent who can bring new ideas as they embrace challenges while fostering a culture in which teams with diverse expertise continue to refine our technologies. I believe these efforts will advance and deepen our technology. Moreover, as the foundation of all our initiatives, we firmly uphold our principle that “Safety First, Always” and, as a group of engineers supporting safety and peace of mind, we will continue to meet the trust of society and our customers.

Looking ahead, we will embrace challenges through innovation to ensure that Bridgestone remains a company that actively supports the future of society and mobility.

My aspiration to engage in product development at Bridgestone stems from an experience during my student years. At the time, I was struck speechless and filled with excitement by how drastically a car’s handling and performance changed simply by changing its tires. In particular, the exceptional performance of Bridgestone’s sports tire, POTENZA RE71S left a lasting impression and inspired me to join Bridgestone. Since then, I have been driven by desire to deliver that same sense of excitement— this time as someone who creates products. This aspiration continues to motivate me to embrace this new challenge at Bridgestone.

My role as CPO is to deliver attractive and competitive products that create excitement and value for customers worldwide. This is the heart of Bridgestone as a rubber and tire manufacturer. For me, an attractive and competitive product is one that brings joy to customers when they use it. I believe that the true aim of product development lies not only in creating high-performance products, but in enhancing experiential value—such as safety, peace of mind, and the joy of driving.

Although we simply call them “tires,” their applications span a wide range—from small passenger cars to ultra-large mining vehicles, and even aircraft. However, what we consistently value across all products is creating them with our customers in mind. A major strength of product development at Bridgestone is that we have development sites in four regions—the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Asia-Pacific—where we carry out development with an in-depth understanding of the characteristics of each region gained on-site (Genbutsu-Genba). We leverage our strengths of being able to develop products in close proximity to customers in each market, linking these strengths across regions through our Global Technology Platform (GTP), carving out further possibilities for product development by integrating powerful on-site capabilities with digital tools, including simulations.

The strength of our people and organization is essential to these challenges. We aspire to be an organization where each teammate involved in product development takes pride in their work and can embed their own aspirations and dreams into the products they create. Under a simple structure that enables swift decision-making, we embrace a “one team” mindset with colleagues worldwide—sharing the excitement of challenges and our dreams, while deeply understanding facts and data on site (Genbutsu-Genba) and taking ownership to drive improvement and solve issues. I believe this will result in not only higher-quality development but also increased efficiency.

Motorsports activities are a microcosm of this. A new challenge starting at the end of 2026 is that we will begin supplying tires to the ABB FIA Formula E World Championships, and our team is excitedly preparing for this. Motorsports, conducted under extreme conditions, demand highly complex development within short timeframes, with safety as a non-negotiable prerequisite—truly representing the ultimate proving ground for our development works. We cannot succeed on the global stage without coming together as one team. Our global team embraces challenges together, and the technologies involved in compounding, measurement, and contact control we gain in the process will be put to good use in replacement tires and nextgeneration tire technologies. Moreover, even in seemingly different fields like off-the-road tires, we pursue the mutual improvement of technologies by sharing technological challenges, leading to ongoing enhancements in performance and quality.

As we move toward our 100th anniversary, we aspire to be a team that continuously takes on diverse challenges, delivering products that exceed customer expectations while supporting the excitement and joy of driving, as well as safe mobility and peace of mind.

The environment for Bridgestone’s manufacturing has become more challenging than ever, reflecting factors such as the impact of U.S. tariffs, rising raw material and energy costs, and increasing difficulty in securing talent globally. To survive in this turbulent environment and continue to grow, it is essential for Bridgestone to respond to change and continue to take agile, targeted actions grounded in an on-site perspective. Also, as we approach our 100th anniversary in 2031, we must pave the way to get back to the No. 1 in the rubber and tire industry and to achieve sustainable growth beyond that.

We established the Global Technology Platform (GTP) to further reinforce the technological foundation Bridgestone has cultivated as a tire manufacturer to achieve future growth. Within this context, production plays a critical role at the very core of our business as a manufacturer. Amid an increasingly challenging external environment, technologies used in products are becoming more advanced and complex to deliver greater customer value, leading to a year-on-year increase in production difficulty. In this context, achieving both the stable supply of attractive and competitive products and enhanced cost competitiveness is essential, and as CMO, I see strengthening cost competitiveness as my top priority.

With Japan as the global core of our manufacturing, we collaborate as one with our global production sites and teams worldwide to drive initiatives that integrate diverse values and technologies, pursuing both short-term and long-term challenges. We are steadily building on improvements in productivity and costs in the short term, while developing production technologies that will drive the next-generation manufacturing. This requires a proactive approach, including the automation of equipment and the use of digital and AI technologies. We will also continue to contribute to sustainability in a way that aligns with our business strategy.

We cannot hone our competitiveness solely through efforts on the part of our plants and production functions—it calls for collaboration across the value chain, particularly close cooperation with the product and material design and development divisions. Such collaboration aims for consistent optimization from the design stage to production, leading to improvements in quality, cost, and speed. In addition to collaboration within the GTP, we are strengthening collaboration with the WEST CTO and regional production functions to build the base that enables mutual understanding and continuous enhancement of each plant’s competitiveness. We believe that connecting teams on site (Genba) and enabling them to learn from one another is what ultimately elevates our global competitiveness.

Also, underpinning all of these initiatives is our people. I have spent many years engaged with production sites, from production systems and manufacturing technology development to plants in Japan, the U.S., and across Asia. Through these experiences, I have come to believe that the true source of competitiveness lies in the people at our sites who think for themselves and relentlessly pursue continuous improvements. Based on the basic thought of “Bridgestone’s unique Deming Plan”—that “good company quality makes good quality of products and services”— through TQM activities involving all teammates and talent development, we will further step up our efforts to foster workplaces where every individual demonstrates a mindset of continuous improvement and takes ownership of their work. In this way, elevating the productivity and creativity of each teammate, together with strong teamwork, will be the key to building the fundamental competitiveness required to succeed in a rapidly changing environment.

As we strive to be back to the No. 1, we will continue to strengthen the foundation for long-term growth by taking on challenges in production and manufacturing together with our teammates worldwide.

The mission of the WEST CTO organization is to strengthen safety, quality, technological and operational capabilities across the WEST as a sustained source of competitive advantage. Our scope spans manufacturing, supply chain, procurement, R&D and sustainability, working hand-in-hand with teams across diverse markets to create value for society and our customers. Delivering this mandate requires not only strong technological capabilities, but also close teamwork across functions, regions, and global platforms.

Throughout the 24MBP period, the WEST CTO team has prioritized reinforcing business fundamentals, while beginning to lay groundwork for future-ready technologies. On the fundamentals side, we streamlined operations, improving manufacturing efficiency, and strengthened supply chain resilience to response to increased volatility from geopolitical and market changes. These efforts contributed to tangible business outcomes, including improvements in business quality such as profitability in European business, and set the base for future growth.

Building on this foundation, we have started to advance future-ready technologies, including new product launches and the development of a sustainable supply chain to support growth and better serve our customers. As we look ahead to return to the world’s No. 1 in the industry, we recognize that significant challenges remain.

In 2026, growth with quality becomes the clear anchor for our direction. Our focus shifts to advancing technology that strengthens competitiveness and business outcomes— by reducing complexity, leveraging digital and simulation, and enabling data-driven R&D activities. These efforts will be translated into faster speed to market and the delivery of more attractive and competitive products and services tailored for each market to lead customer success.

As the WEST serves a diverse portfolio of markets, customer needs are very different and our technological and operational approach need to be both scalable and adaptable to fit each need. Digitalization and standardization are key enablers in achieving this balance. Moreover, fostering innovation through utilizing technology centers deeply rooted in local markets in the U.S. for the Americas and Italy for Europe will be important to strengthening competitiveness and winning in the markets. Drawing on my more than 25 years of experience within the Bridgestone Group, my role is to connect these technology hubs and teams with GTP to advance our technology.

Moving ahead, Genbutsu-Genba, a strong legacy within the Bridgestone Essence, remains a core value guiding our approach to technology and innovation, ensuring that decisions and actions are firmly grounded in onsite reality. By always starting from Genba and strengthened teamwork, we are preparing for Bridgestone’s 100th anniversary in 2031. Furthermore, our pursuit of growth must always be built on safety. For Bridgestone globally—“Safety First, Always” is a non-negotiable foundation. It underpins innovation, execution, and competitive advantage, and serves as the starting point for strengthening quality and trust across the entire value chain.